Generations of Ink
by Sapphiria
Summary: Ten years ago, Henry left the studio to get away from the insane Joey Drew. A year ago Henry went back at the studios from a mysterious letter. Now his son is entering under the same purposes as his father, searching for answers to a mysterious letter whilst paying for the actions of a crazed maniac deep inside. Dreams come true, but will he set them free?
1. An Old Invitation

**So I have fallen in love with Bendy and the Ink Machine like many other people and what do I do? Write a horror crossover like a normal person. YAY! So technically my first ever horror story so I am a bit nervous but hey, it's a try.**

 **Warning: There will be some squirmish and horrific events in the future. If I need to, I'll up the ranking later on.**

 **Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading.**

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 **An Old Invitation**

The taxi jutted across the landscape, following the concrete laid road perfectly through the little town that was once well known for holding the studios of SillyVision, an animation company credited for the creation of the old cartoon classic, 'The Dancing Demon – Starring Bendy the Devil!'. The studio's reputation soon expanded after popular request of kids and adults alike. Bendy was joined by Boris the Wolf and Alice Angel and soon enough their creator, Joey Drew, had rose all three of them to stardom. For a while, Bendy and his crew were the stars of children's animation and entertainment, that was until the place shut down expectantly a few years ago due to staff disappearances.

Never in all of his years as a taxi driver had Mr Caraway questioned a client's set destination but now, more than ever, he wanted to so badly. The black-haired boy in the back was silent, reading a letter of some kind that was clutched tightly in his hands over and over again. The words on that piece of cream paper must have meant the world to the kid reading them. He glanced into the back as the boy pulled down his sleeveless blue jacket, covering more of his red top – with rolled up sleeves – as his free hand scrunched up the grey fabric of his trousers.

The boy was an enigma to Mr Caraway, who couldn't honestly see why a fifteen-year-old would be headed to a destination of an animation studio made for children half his age. Maybe he was one of the children of one of the missing staff members but they normally came in a group on the day everything went wrong, not randomly on a peculiar day of any old month. The boy said nothing, nor did anything other than look out the window or read the letter. It seemed as if something was ebbing away at him but, no matter how many times the old taxi driver tried to make a conversation, the boy would never answer and just stare out the window to prove a point. He didn't want to talk and he wasn't going too.

The buildings began to thin around them as the taxi edged closer to its destination, one or two began appearing dotted around the countryside. Minutes passed as though they were hours, time slowing like the taxi as it made a turn to the right to enter the driveway towards SillyVision Studios.

"Alright, we're here…" Caraway mentioned, which was given a silent thank you along with a nice sum of money for the long trip before the boy stepped out and shut the door behind him. The taxi driver felt a need to stop the child from entering, fearing the worst about that place, but controlled his feelings by driving away into the fog that was rolling in across the fields and road.

The gate was open, right one swinging to and fro with the wind. Its downwards bars and curved top were reminiscent to that of a prison entrance, the rackety wooden studio was a wonderment in itself, especially with how it was still standing upright even after the beating the weather and time had given it. The wood still had its golden cream shine, with the giant logo for the studios towering ahead, a cut out of Bendy leaning on the words whilst waving to the world as it passed by their abandoned home. Below the sign, a handle to the entrance beckoned the child inside.

A deep breath.

The crumpling noise of paper.

Another deep breath.

With nothing left to hold him back, Ash pushed down on the handle and entered.

~0~o~0~

A blast of warmth hit his face immediately after stepping through the doorway, something he wanted to preserve for as long as he was there meaning that shutting the door behind him was the best thing to do. The entrance was a short corridor, posters of the films made at the studios framed perfectly with the pride of a famous studio that refused to go mainstream. Wood seemed to be the only material that the studio had ever met, which was quite useful in the secluded location of its position, boards formed the floor and the skirting boards with the walls painted the same colour for no particular reason. Up ahead was an open space with a bench, animation desks were strewn around the place randomly with more corridors leading to unknown rooms that seemingly had no purpose.

Above all else, the studio looked empty. There was no noise, no chatting of workers, no music coming from downstairs being recorded for the cartoons, no nothing. With a raised eyebrow, Ash looked back at the letter that had been posted through his mailbox a few days beforehand, re-reading the words for the umpteenth time.

 _Dear Ash,_

 _It seems like ages since I last saw you running around here with your father, years just seem to fly by like nothing nowadays, don't they?_

 _Speaking of your father, I haven't seen him since he stormed out of here a while back. I'd like to talk to you about him, maybe the sight of you will make him calmer again and allow him to continue his work? Either way, please meet with me at your earliest convenience._

 _Yours, Joey Drew_

If this place was still running like the letter insinuated it was, then wouldn't there be people at their desks drawing? Wouldn't there be noise? Wouldn't Mr Drew at least be there to greet him personally? Ash took a few steps forward, testing the waters to see if anyone would hear him enter. Once again, the silence of the studios covered his senses, spiking a feeling of danger through the fifteen-year-old. This could be a trap for some kind of joke, something for some TV show or something along those lines.

"Hello, Mr Drew?" Internally, he scolded himself for calling out. If this place was haunted, then he had just revealed himself to the masses of ghosts that were ready to pounce on his delectable human body made of flesh and bones. "Mr Drew, it's Henry's kid…. You wrote me a letter telling me to come here?" Nothing, just pure, unaltered silence. Was this everyone's day off? If so, why was the door unlocked?

Maybe a cleaner left to get lunch or something and left it unlocked, if so then it wouldn't harm to stay around and see what had happened to the place since he was there already. If there was one place he had to go immediately, then it had to be his father's workstation. Ignoring the other equipment in the main space, he turned to the right towards the cornered off section of the desk, tucked away from view.

Henry's workspace included a doorway opposite, which lead to his office as the head of animation. Ash, even back when he was little, knew not to go up there. It was a heaven gifted to his father by Joey Drew himself for being a close friend and for helping him reach to the level of fame he wanted Bendy to reach. That heaven was sacred to Henry, who would go up there if the noise of the other workers got too much for him whilst animating, even though his bench was hidden from everyone else.

Unease settled through him as his eyes latched onto the doorway leading to his father's safe spot, the wooden planks boarding it up away from view made him feel as if Mr Drew was delusional. If Henry hadn't been to work in a while, then his office wouldn't be hidden, locked up from anyone so no one could ever try entering it again. His father hadn't been gone a while, it seemed as if he'd been gone months, or even years. Light still shone down from one of the office's windows, illuminating the stairwell leading up to its hidden mysteries. Worrying about it wouldn't be of any help, especially when there was no way to get into the space thanks to the board that were nailed across it.

Almost guiltily, Ash turned back towards the desk having to discard any thoughts about what his father was hiding up there. He distinctly remembered being told that, under no circumstances should he ever be aloud up there even in the event of Henry's unfortunate demise. His eyes rested on a piece of paper on the desk with a cute Bendy face on it drawn in ink, the note next to it said 'NO!' with a hidden tone of anger hiding behind the word.

A smile formed on his lips as he remembered the day he had asked his father to draw a cuter Bendy as a child. Henry, being the loving man that he was, agreed and made it up for him in minutes. Chuckling at the note, an idea formed in the teenager's mind. Looking around, he found an ink jar with a dried-out fountain pen underneath the desk. Just his luck. The ink hadn't solidified thanks to the stopper on top of the jar, allowing him to use the pen to draw his own manga version of the cartoon character, winking whilst smiling in a cute pose. For a laugh, he wrote 'Yes!' in swirly letters beside his own creation, laughing at the thought of the reaction the person who made that note would have.

Knowing that joking around at his father's workspace would get him nowhere, Ash left the secluded area back to the main space, looking at the only way he could go. The left way went to his father's secluded area, the right lead deeper into the studio. Although he had prior experience with the studios, the teenager was only five when he had last visited the place meaning he couldn't remember the layout exactly. The idea was just to find Mr Drew, find out what he wanted and get out.

For a while, he wandered aimlessly with hopes of finding any sign of a worker or someone who could point him in the direction of Mr Drew. Countless doors and work desks passed him until an empty area stopped him in his tracks. Written on the wall, in ink, was the phrase 'Dreams come true' with a puddle of the sticky substance resting on the floor beside it. No self-respecting head of an animation studio would let a worker deface their walls, even if the phrase was supposed to be an image of the company's motto through their movies. Touching the inscription revealed that the ink was bone dry, not recently made. Did that mean no one had been in for a while? Then why had the letter insinuated the place was still up and running?

Ash backed away slowly until a room at the end of the corridor caught his attention. Some weird contraption was held inside, its appearance grew weirder with each step closer he took. Entering the room gave him a clear view of the device. It was made out of multiple cogs and gears, square in shape with a nozzle spouting ink from the end in random small bursts. On the back, a tank with the word INK was attached tightly to the machine, probably fuelling it. Before he could say anything, his eyes rested on a note dropped by the floor.

 _To activate the Ink Machine, six offerings must be made. Find them and the power to turn on to be blessed in the dark liquid of life._

Okay, that was weird. The handwriting resembled the one on the letter he got, but there were slight differences with the dotting of the i's and curling of the g's. Maybe this was someone who had a similar style to Mr Drew but was also insane? Ink was toxic, everyone knew that, it could cause death instead of life. What exactly did the note mean by that? His brain was telling him to run, go and find the nearest phone booth and call his mother to pick him up. Ash sighed internally at his own thoughts, even after five years of travelling his mother still wouldn't allow him a mobile phone. Didn't the woman know it meant he could call her once a night if she wanted to?

He left the Ink Machine room, searching for a simple switch which may have been able to turn it on. If Joey Drew was testing him, then turning on the machine must have been the said test. Turning right at the nearest entrance led him up another path, his eyes noticing a lever in the distance. He smiled, this was easy. As he neared the L shaped bend into it, a board from the ceiling dropped onto the ground, clattering slightly as he jumped. It was just a loose board, he told himself over and over whilst trying to still his breath.

Thanks to that jumpscare, he didn't notice the other room at the end of the corridor.

Entering the room with the power switch, Ash noticed there were six pedestals, each with a silhouetted picture behind them. So, this is what the note meant about the six offerings? That meant he had to search for the items on the floor.

"Great, just my luck…" A quick scan of the room revealed that there were no items to be found in there, so he sauntered back into the corridor, ready to make his way back to the ink machine, where he had noticed a cog and an ink pot hidden away. Something stopped him, however. He jumped back as a Bendy cut-out had appeared out of nowhere, blocking his view and scaring him. Someone had to be here to do that whilst he was in the room, which terrified him no end. It seemed he wasn't alone.

Walking around the demonic cardboard cut-out latched his line of sight directly onto a figure strapped to an almost vertical operating table. A figure he knew all too well.

"B-b-b-b-Boris?" Ash ran towards the table, scanning the corpse of the animation that had turned into a real life being in the physical plane. He knew that, Boris used to hang out with his father all the time whilst he went off with Bendy wreaking havoc for the workers. Alice Angel would never get herself involved due to a… distaste in the matter.

Joey Drew had brought his cartoons to life, somehow, and because of it three living beings, acting like costumed voice actors, helped give tours but the staff and Ash knew better. They knew the truth behind the three cartoons and were forced to keep it quiet or else. Joey was already going mad with the power of the creator, it wouldn't be long before everything went wrong and it must have, just not when he was around.

Seeing Boris in such a state turned Ash's thoughts to his father, wondering how the man would react to this. Boris had formed a bond with Henry that he didn't have with anyone else, just like Bendy had with him. Ribcage open, mouth open with the cartoonish X's for eyes would have sent Henry screaming in anger. For Ash, it just brought tears of shame and guilt. He hadn't stepped foot in the establishment for ten years, and it showed with how little he knew of what was happening. Where was Alice and Bendy, where were the workers? The teen couldn't help but feeling terrible as he stared at the still form of the cartoon wolf.

For some reason, his mother's nagging voice filled his head, telling him off for leaving a wound open to the elements. Whilst true fresh air helped some wounds, the germs and diseases carried through it didn't help ones such as Boris' who literally had his ribcage pushing out from his chest. Something immediately came to mind but, after it, so did the image of his mother killing him with a lecture. There was one thing he could do to make himself feel less guilt about the situation and that was wrapping up the open chest with some kind of bandage to give Boris a decent appearance in death. However, the only thing on him was his clothing, and he needed most of them… minus the jacket.

Luckily, whoever had played their hand in Boris' demise had left a pair of clean scissors behind, leaving him with just one option. His jacket was about to get a lot shorter. Carefully, he snipped around the fabric – after taking the jacket off of course – leaving enough to keep the item in one piece but taking off enough to wrap around the chest of Boris. It only made one loop, but it covered the wound even when tied together in a knot. After accomplishing that, Ash put back on his now considerably shorter jacket whilst noticing the book – handwritten by Joey Drew himself – propped up against the table. As soon as his fingers ghosted over the top of the cover, it vanished into thin air. Great, how was he going to get the items needed now?! A quick check back in the power room revealed that the book was now floating on its own pedestal, having teleported somehow under human touch. That made his job a whole lot easier.

With one last look to Boris, Ash left to search deeper into the studios for the items he needed to restore the power. If only he had never left, then maybe Boris wouldn't have been in the position he was in now.

~0~o~0~

Like he had predicted, the ink pot and the cog were in the room with the ink machine, the wrench was by his father's desk, the plush doll was on the main desk in the open space and the vinyl was beside the wall with the message about dreams written on it. Those were all the items needed to activate the machine, and thus meant the trek back to the switch.

Ash hated himself at the moment as paranoia crept up on him. The Bendy cut-outs in the building seemed to move freely, some even following his movements. If that wasn't bad enough, some of the doors had lights under them that would go out as soon as he walked near them. It didn't help said doors were locked with no one inside. With no one around, minus the dead body of Boris with the Frankenstein re-enactment, it made the job increasingly harder for him to handle. It felt like any minute some being would jump out and grab him.

Of course, his paranoia turned to anger when it was revealed that he had to go and find the flow switch for the pressure on the machine before he could turn the power back on. That meant trekking deeper into the bowels of the studio to find yet another button to press/another flip to switch before he could get the machine running. Leaving the creepily floating items in place. He turned and left for the room where the flow switch was.

One thing he hadn't realised was that he had passed by one of those old cassette tape recorders multiple times without even noticing its existence. Out of pure curiosity, he made sure the tape was rewound back to the beginning and played it.

"I had a feeling about this," Ash's eyes almost bulged out of his sockets as his father's voice flowed clearly through the ink splattered device. "Joey was going insane when he made those three, and things got even worse after his precious Bendy began interacting with Ashton. Something told me Joey would go this crazy over his creations, but I never listened to it… I should have known better, shouldn't I? Well… Joey, if you're listening, consider this my letter of resignation for my family's safety. Yes, in the word of good old Wally Franks, I'm outta here." The tape ended suddenly, leaving the teen to ponder over the words he heard.

Was this the reason why they moved to Pallet? Was it because his father was worried about their lives under the influence of Joey Drew? If so, then was the man that owned this place still as insane as he was back then cause if so, Ash knew he was in a lot of trouble. That was actually saying something because trouble followed him everywhere and he remained blissfully unaware until the last minute, and this time there were no Pokémon on hand to save him if he ended up in some sort of life threatening trouble.

Pikachu was having his monthly check up at Professor Oak's, as were all of his other Pokémon under the professor's care and, being the headstrong boy that he was, he didn't wait around for them to be treated so he could bring six with him just in case. To be honest, he didn't want them to be here. If things were as bad as Boris' corpse on the table told him, then danger was eminent the longer he stayed there. Of course, he couldn't feel danger if it slapped him in the face with a Magikarp.

From what Ash could gather from the lack of the flow switch in any of the rooms he had been in, the corridor he had not traversed included a room to that said switch he needed to flip. Everything had been fine until a familiar face popped out around the side, causing him to jump and stumble backwards as the Bendy cut-out disappeared back to the wall. He quickly ran the rest of the way, finding the cut-out propped against the wall with a puddle of ink at its feet. Okay, that was odd. Ash shook his head, glaring at the cardboard thing as he passed it into the cinema room.

A memory flashed through his eyes as a ghostly child with his father watched a movie on it, two cartoon figures sitting either side of the humans. It faded after a while but left him silent at the guilt. Why did he let his parents move? Maybe if they hadn't Boris wouldn't be dead after some form of experimentation that had happened for some reason. Pushing those thoughts out of his mind, he walked past the wooden chairs to the side, staring at row upon row of reel for animation sequences. He turned around and, as if his thoughts had been heard, the flow switch button was right in his face.

"That was easier than I expected…" Ash muttered to himself, pressing it before heading back to the power switch room, passing Boris along the way. The flashing word 'Ready' alerted him to the task that was needed to give power to the ink machine. With a deep breath, he pulled the lever down, hearing the groaning of machinery springing to life after a while of misuse. However, it wasn't as loud as he expected it to be as if it had been used within the past twelve months. Frowning, he left the room to check on the ink machine, once again passing Boris but this time, the blue wrapping was being drenched in ink somehow… oh. Ash almost threw up, covering his mouth as he dashed on by trying to push the image out of his brain. He paused outside the turn to the ink machine, choosing then and there to expel the contents of his stomach.

"No… no no no…" He leant against the post, turning his head to the room of his goal which caused him to freeze. Why were there boards across the entrance way on the inside of the room? The teen slowly edged closer, one footstep in front of the other. Cautiously he peered in as he was almost at touching distance when suddenly, he felt a hand scratch his face as something popped out of nowhere.

Falling onto his behind, Ash looked up trembling as his eyes met the ink dripping, creepily grinning face of a monster, a humanoid monster that was reaching out blindly, trying to grab at the teenager that had once been standing where it could clasp his face. Left hand shaking, he rose it to his cheek before pulling his hand back to find it stained with ink, and ink only explaining the lack of pain. His fear wasn't just because of the sudden appearance of the monster, it was because of what the monster was… Bendy.

A gasp escaped his lips as the Bendy monster melted into the ink that was filling up the floor, covering everything around him in the black substance. By now, Ash was in the right state of mind to tell Joey Drew to piss off and find out about Henry using his own methods. He needed to get out of there.

Pushing himself up whilst stumbling, the boy ran through the halls whilst trying his hardest not to slip on the substance as he did so. If that creature could melt into ink, then it could be chasing him at the moment. Never before had he been more scared in his life and he had dealt with the universe's angry creator named Arceus. Ash burst out from the corridor like maze into the large space that led right to the exit, the last hurdle before his escape. He made a last mad dash for the exit, hoping to get out of there and call the police or something. What he wasn't expecting was that the floor would collapse under him just as he reached the door.

Everything went in slow motion, the feeling of gravity pulling him down, the sight of the exit falling away from his grasp. Ash tried to grasp for the wood remaining but the flooding of ink made it too slippery for him to even try to get a grasp on it. He screamed as he fell down into the darkness, ink following down with him as he vanished into a murky abyss.

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 **Next time: Memories, pain and pentagrams.**


	2. Fractured Memories

**I'm so sorry this has taken forever!**

 **Considering I was working with only five minutes of gameplay from the rest of chapter one, I really tried to make this as long as possible for you guys but Chapter three WILL be out next week to get a longer chapter into the story... from there canon will diverge more but details. For now, review answers!**

 **Nerdy McNerdface: Why thank you kindly! I had to make him defenceless some how, with Pokemon he could have just escaped right from the very beginning. I am not having that in my horror story.**

 **Trinity Sparks: Thanks. Yes, they do have history, some of which will be revealed today.**

 **Transgirl2000: I have and I will be, don't worry about that.**

 **GhostFang GF: I'm glad you like it and I am continuing... just three months later.**

 **Thedarkness1996: Thanks for you kind words.**

 **Well that's that and, once again, sorry for the short length, I will make it up to you guys, promise. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!**

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 **Fractured Memories**

 _His parents were arguing, again. Apparently, Mummy had been asked by friends to go and do something abroad for a week and she had immediately said yes, meaning Daddy had to look after him whilst she was gone. But Daddy had to work at his studio at the time, one of the few ways that the family was getting money in to pay for bills and the essentials._

" _Look, Henry, I am leaving tomorrow and that's that," Mummy crossed her arms and looked down at him. "Take Ash with you to work if you have to or ask Samuel to babysit…"_

" _Samuel is in Pallet Town, we're here in Saffron," Daddy groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose as he talked – something Daddy did when a headache was coming on. "Fine, I'll take him to work with me but you can't do this again."_

" _Thank you Henry, I am so sorry to pile this on you but it's one of my last chances for freedom, you know?" Mummy was somewhat relieved by that, didn't she want to be with him and Daddy? He looked up at Daddy with a slight whimper behind his throat, leading the older male to pick him up into a big bear hug._

" _Looks like it's you and me kiddo," No matter how angry he could get at Mummy for doing daft things, Daddy never was angry at him, not ever. "How about you see the place I work at, where I make my amazing animations you love so much?" Wait, back up, did Daddy say the place he works? That place was supposed to be the most magical thing alive, where cartoons were brought to life._

" _Yeah!" He grinned, hugging his Daddy back. Maybe a week without Mummy wouldn't be so bad after all._

~0~o~0~

 _The drive over to Sillyvision Studios was an eventful one for Henry, who couldn't help but smile at his hyperactive three-year-old in the back who was singing along happily to some of the songs made by the company he worked for. Due to being a member of staff, he was allowed free access to movie screenings on premiere nights, and always brought his family along with him. Parking in his designated space allowed Henry close access to the entrance, which was helpful when you had a child coming along with you. Sillyvision did tours of the studios sometimes, but staff parking was always near the front with department heads getting their own bays._

 _The moment Ash stepped out of the car, he instantly changed his personality from a confident, excited young boy to the shyest thing you could even imagine. He clung to his father's trousers, using them as a shield to protect him from the unfamiliar faces he was bound to meet inside. Henry said a quick hello to the rest of his team, who threw the greeting back at him as he led his son into his secluded workspace. Pulling out spare crayons and paper to keep his curious son entertained, Henry handed the items over before getting started with his work whilst completely forgetting about the two visitors who liked to pop into his area every now and again._

 _For a couple of hours, everything was peaceful. Henry got to complete some of the frames for the upcoming Bendy movie whilst Ash was drawing whatever his imaginative three year old mind could come up with, some characters of which Henry considered putting forward to Joey for their next feature length film. Just as they were taking a lunch break, someone stood behind Henry with their shadow falling over him which made him turn around._

" _Gosh Henry, ya only now taking a lunch break?" Somehow, the life filled body of the cartoon wolf, Boris, was standing behind him and, at a glance, Henry seemed pretty cool with it. "Ya need to stop pushin' yourself so much."_

" _Yeah, too much slag and next to no fun time," A shorter figure, that of the main attraction of the studios named Bendy, agreed from beside Boris. "Ooo! Who's this little cutie?" His black, pie slice cut-out eyes turned to the boy sat on a cushion on the floor, staring up at the cartoon characters in awe._

" _This little bundle of trouble is my son, Ash," Henry replied before taking a bite out of his sandwich, ignoring the sparkling eyes of the little devil. "I've told you two about him before."_

" _Why is he here?" Boris asked in confusion, rubbing his chin with his gloved hand. "I thought Delia looked after him whilst ya worked?"_

" _Well she's off on a cruise with her friends whilst I'm looking after our son," The man took another bite before swallowing it down with a swish of canned lemonade. "Joey will kill me when he finds out I've done this but I have no other choice."_

" _I see, I see…" Boris knelt down gently beside the child, trying not to scare him. "Hi there, ya more cuter than ya Daddy told us ya'd be."_

" _Boris? You're alive?! Awesome!" The wolf couldn't help but laugh at Ash's enthusiasm and complete lack of common sense that would be nagging at him as to why cartoon characters were alive. Children truly did bring out the magic in everything._

" _Course I am, Bendy and I both are," Turning to his fellow living cartoon, Boris gave Bendy a firm stare that told him to be nice and to not scare Henry's kid. Bendy, being the kind and gentle sole that he was known to be – all the staff members who he had pranked would argue otherwise – put on his award winning grin and made his own introduction._

" _Well hello there, I'm Bendy!" The ink demon held his hand out for the toddler to shake. "I can tell the two of us are going to cause so much mischief together!"_

~0~o~0~

The memories slowly faded away as consciousness came crashing down on him like a ten-foot wave. Aches and pains blossomed across his body, with the most painful ending up in his shoulder. Ash pushed himself up, wincing at the feeling of the broken boards digging into his legs. Looking up, the blinking lights of the mineshaft he had just fallen down acted as flashes of mockery to his situation. Having fallen through meant that there was no return to the exit, he was truly trapped down somewhere under the studio. If only he wasn't so dumb enough to leave without his Pokémon, one of them could have flown him up the mineshaft to freedom. However, he didn't have his friends with him, meaning that he was supposed to survive down in the depths until someone called the police to report him missing and get him out.

With sudden movement sending a jarring motion through his body, Ash soon realised that he hadn't come out of the fall entirely unscathed. His right arm was in agony, especially in his shoulder, with a numb feeling forming in his fingers. Carefully, he turned his head over to the limb and groaned at the disfigurement of his shoulder area. His arm was dislocated from its socket. This wasn't the first time he had dislocated his arm, meaning that he knew how to rectify the problem quickly thanks to Brock's teachings. Slowly gearing himself up for the task, he painfully held his arm out straight and pushed it in as hard as he could.

The popping sound of the joints reconnecting was barely hearable over the scream of agony that followed.

Whilst a stabbing pain was still making itself very much apparent to the teenager, he knew it would die down over time and he'd start to feel better sooner than if he left it out of place. Apart from a few bruises and cuts he couldn't do anything to now, all injuries had seemingly been sorted out and attended to a suitable degree which would allow him to move again. Now that he could move, he could find a way out of here.

The room he had fallen into was barren, some items were leant up against a door as an effective barricade sealing him inside. A pipe flowing with ink stuck out of one of the walls, matching splatters that covered corners and messed papers that were stuck in abundance onto the wall. A entrance way was just a bit away from where he was sitting, the opening led to a staircase set that led deeper into the studio, but that was the only way he could go.

Pushing himself up into a standing position, Ash tried to hide a groan of pain as he did so since he knew he wasn't the only being inside the place and any noise could led the others to his location, picking him off whilst he was his most defenceless. He couldn't let that happen, not now that he could run away and try and find a way out of here properly. Hobbling out of the blocked off room, he headed towards the stairs with a renewed sense of determination.

The stairs spiralled in on themselves, one of them containing a valve that released the pressure on one of the ink pipes. Lights flicked every now and then, revealing the true despair that the studio had fallen under due to years of abandonment. Every step resulted in a creak between the floorboards, the sound echoing louder due to the enclosed space it was allowed to rebound off of, the walls thick even though they seemed to be made out of flimsy wood. Ink dripped down from cracks between the ceiling, creating puddles that spread out in all directions due to the vast amount there was of the stuff.

The stairs led to a dead end, with only one door with the wall on the opposite side of it falling to pieces, light flooding through the empty spaces. With nothing else to do, and the only way out of the cornered position he was now in, Ash gently twisted the knob on the door only to sigh in relief as it was open and – unlike most of the other doors in the studios – was accessible for entering. Using his only arm that wasn't still in total agony, he pushed the door wide open, revealing another ink splattered, barren room. A few barrels littered the place but, other than that, it seemed empty with the corridor leading it to another space boarded off from view.

Ash sighed deeply with the belief that he was indefinitely trapped, locked between two dead ends he couldn't change to suit his wishes. His body hurt too much to try and chop through the boards of wood using naught but his hands and legs, nor could he move the barricade of the other door considering the fact it may be locked as well. At least for now he could use the new room with a closable door as a safe resting spot, just in case the things that were stuck inside with him tried to come after him.

Upon entering the room, his relief of a spot to rest turned into joy at the sight of an axe resting upon hooks nailed into the wall that couldn't be seen from outside. Like most of the things in the place, it was made of wood but sharp with black metal reinforcements. Considering how flimsy some of the floors and ceilings were, it was a gift from the heavens meaning that forwards was an option he now had to use. Picking it up with his left hand, the teenager took a trial swing, surprised at how lightweight the weapon actually was. He turned to face the boarded-up corridor with a grin, he was going to have so much fun with this.

Walking up to the boards, his eyes caught another ink written message on a clear space of undamaged wall. This one wasn't as cheery as the one upstairs, instead having the message that 'The creator lied to us'. Ash stumbled a bit, frowning at the ambiguous choice of wording. Who was the creator? The creator of the studios, the creator of the cartoons? Was it referring to Joey or maybe even his father, Henry, who abandoned the place after an argument with the big boss man himself. He was the head of animation so could be considered _the_ creator.

Pushing the words into the back of his head for now, he raised the axe with his good hand and began to chop everything down that was in his path. Board after board split in two, clearing the way for him to freedom, to safety. A candle flicked in the bend ahead, lighting the way to yet another door that had a board placed over it. With one last swing the board across the door fell, making way for the door behind it to swing open as if by magic.

One look inside what was locked away scared Ash immediately. Two coffins lay propped against the wall that was dead centre to his position, candles lay lit around the edge of some kind of demonic summoning circle painted out of ink, telling him that whomever he was trapped with was not sane in the mind at all. The surroundings began to shake violently, almost causing him to fall to the floor. Ash didn't want to move, knowing that stepping towards the painted symbol on the floor would cause a catastrophic event, knowing his luck with these kind of things. His plan was to stay in that spot until the quaking ended and walk around it to get to the other side.

That was until hands pushed him forwards.

He stumbled a couple of steps, just enough to make his toes connect with the ink of the outer ring of the circle on the ground. Images flashed through his mind, one of the ink machine, another of a wheelchair, the last being Bendy, face covered in ink just staring at him with that now creepily familiar smile permanently etched onto his face. Soon after the last image faded from his brain, his limbs stopped responding. His vision blackened as he crumpled to the floor, letting go of the axe in his hand. Just before he succumbed to the darkness, Ash was sure he could make out a figure hovering above him as his eyes closed.

" _ **Now then… how did such a pure being like yourself end up in a place like this?"**_ Staring down at the boy, curled in on himself in the deepest depths of sleep, the figure knelt beside him. With a gentle caress of the cheek they stood up, smirking at the little smudge of ink left in the wake of their actions. _**"Such a pure, white lamb… so beautiful… so delicate…"**_ They finally turned away from him, looking at the path the boy had just come down with another wide and creepy grin widening on their face. _**"So much work to do, so little time…"**_ As the left, they muttered some words which grew louder and louder with each repetition.

" _ **Sheep, sheep, sheep, it's time for sleep. Rest your head, it's time for bed…"**_


End file.
